LITTLE ROCK — The head of the Arkansas Ethics Commission said Monday that the state treated a legal defense fund for former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker different from the way it treated one sought by Benton County Judge Dave Bisbee because of different laws and circumstances.
The commission on Friday said Bisbee could set up a fund, but only if donations were limited to $100.
But 15 years ago Tucker had a fund, and at least 70 people donated more than $100.
A commission attorney at the time, Randy Wright, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 1996 that Tucker had followed requirements by reporting who gave more than $100 on his annual financial disclosure form with the state.
But commission Executive Director Graham Sloan said Monday that, despite Wright’s statement to the newspaper, the commission never made a formal ruling on Tucker’s fund. Wright left the commission in 1997.
Sloan said Friday was the first time the commission issued an opinion on a legal defense fund.
After receiving a request from Bisbee about setting up such a fund, the commission ruled that a donation of more than $100 to the fund would be considered an illegal gift to a public official.
The gift law, Arkansas Code Annotated 21-8-801, was put in place in 1988. But Sloan said it was “largely ignored” until the commission issued an opinion in 1999 more fully developing what kinds of gifts are banned.
Tucker’s fund, set up for his defense for several charges in federal court, was created before that 1999 opinion.
In 1995, 92 people contributed $107,150 to Tucker’s fund. At least two of those received board appointments from Tucker before he left office.
Earlier this month, a Benton County jury acquitted Bisbee, a Republican, of two ethics-related misdemeanor charges and deadlocked on a third charge. He has been a county judge since January 2009 and previously served 16 years in the state Legislature.
The 1988 gift law states that gifts or more than $100 are banned if they are given in connection to the “performance of the duties and responsibilities of his or her office or position.”
The 1999 opinion interpreted that law as meaning that gifts are banned to officials for “doing his or her job” and that bribery must not be proven.
Bisbee’s attorney, former congressman Asa Hutchinson of Bella Vista, had argued that donations to the legal defense fund would be allowed under an exemption for donations from family and longtime friends.
But Sloan said that exemption wouldn’t apply with the legal defense fund because the crimes Bisbee was charged with were connected to his performance as a public official.
“People who aren’t related to you coming out of the woodwork to pay your legal bills might create an impression that they want something in return,” Sloan said.
Legal defense funds for public officials aren’t mentioned in state law, Sloan said, so when Bisbee asked the commission for an opinion the gift law was the applicable law to examine.
Hutchinson said Friday that Bisbee wouldn’t set up a legal defense fund because the donation maximum allowed by the commission was so low as to make fundraising difficult. Hutchinson declined to say how much those legal bills are.
Bisbee lost in the Republican Party runoff for re-election as county judge. In January, when he is no longer in office, Bisbee won’t be under the gift rules and may accept donations freely, without limit, said Sloan.
Hutchinson declined to say Monday whether Bisbee planned to set up a fund after leaving office.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/22/2010